francesca lucente terragnoli pettinelli

I have been focusing on my fourth great grandparents in my last few posts; but I know that I have another side of my family where I have very little information that I need to focus on.  The reason that I have little information is that there is a gap in records available online for the area this family is from, Prezza, L'Aquila, Italy in the Abruzzo region.  I would love to obtain records from Italy, but I know the only way this is going to happen is if I hire someone to do the research or if I visit Italy myself.  I have tried unsuccessfully to write to the civil registration office for Prezza and I have contacted a couple of researchers, but all have been too expensive.  Instead, I thought I would see if I could find some more clues in the records I do have and see if there are any more records that may be in the United States, starting with one of my second great grandmothers, Francesca Lucente.

Francesca has been tricky to find in the United States, but she definitely came here at some point because I came upon her gravestone in Quincy, MA on findagrave while I was searching for someone else.  I wrote a little about this in another post.  With the information from her stone, I also obtained a transcription of her death record from Massachusetts Document Retrieval service; which answered some questions, and left many to be answered.

From previous research I have done on Francesca, I have come to the conclusion that Francesca Lucente first married Guiseppe Terragnoli, my second great grandfather, in Italy.  They had at least three children, Luisa, Damiano, and Cosnio (spelling is a guess from records). All of these children came to the United States at some point - the following is the information I have on these children:

• Cosnio or Cosmo Terragnoli : passenger record from Italy to Boston - he came over with his brother-in-law, Arnaldo DeNicola - his sister Luisa's husband, in 1906 and he lives in Boston in 1907.  He may have gone back to Italy as I cannot find him in the United States after these dates. 
• Damiano Terragnoli : have not found his passenger record; but the 1920 census states he came to US in 1898, 1930 census states he came to US in 1907.  He marries Giselda Faiella in 1910 in Boston, MA.  At some point he changes his name to Damiano Pettinelli, all of his children have the Pettinelli surname.  (Terragnoli is surname on Damiano's marriage record in 1910, but census for 1920 and 1930 he is going by Pettinelli)
• Louisa Terragnoli : married Arnaldo DeNicola, probably in Italy around 1905.  She came to US in 1907 with her husband and first daughter.  The rest of their children were born in MA.  Arnaldo came back and forth from Italy a few times before they settled here in 1907.  They came from Prezza, Italy. 

These are the only children I know of that Francesca had.  There may have been more in Italy that did not come over.  Francesca's' husband, Guiseppe Terragnoli, must have died in Italy as Francesca's death certificate and her gravestone has the last name of Pettinelli.  Her death record states she is widowed from Luigi Pettinelli. (This is where her son Damiano got his new last name from - although I do find it strange that he did not keep his Terragnoli surname).  I have not been able to find a marriage record of Luigi and Francesca, so I am guessing they were married in Italy.  I do not even know if Luigi Pettinelli came to the United States, as I have not been able to find any records in the US for Luigi.  I also do not know when Francesca came to the US, as I cannot find her passenger record.  

Her death record does state she had been in the "community" for 18 years.  She died in 1925, so she probably came to the US around 1907.  This is around the same date her children came to the US also.  I have searched the passenger records using both the ancestry.com search form and the Stephen Morse search interface on http://stevemorse.org/ for a Francesca Terragnoli, Francesca Pettinelli and even her maiden name of Francesca Lucente; and still cannot find her.  I did not even restrict the search to a timeframe, and still found no good matches.

If Francesca had been living in the United States since 1907, she should be in the 1910 and the 1920 census. I cannot find her in either.  As I mentioned above, her death record shows that she was residing at 54 Winter street in Quincy, at the time of her death in 1925.  The 1924 Quincy directory has Arnaldo DeNicola and Francesca's daughter Louisa living at this residence in 1924.  So clearly, Francesca is living with her daughter when she dies.  I searched the 1920 census for her daughter and husband Arnaldo DeNicola, and I also cannot find them.  I am frustrated I cannot find them as they are living in Quincy, MA according to the Quincy directory; on Washington Street in 1920.  If Francesca was living with them, it would provide me with another date of birth and a possible immigration date to compare with her death record.  

The death record of Francesca Pettinelli also provided a possible birth date of 1839, as the informant, Luigi Pettinelli, states Francesca Pettinelli was 86 years old at the time of her death in 1925.  We also have her parent's names from this record.  Her father is listed as Nichelle Lucente and her mother Dominca DiRanico. Since some records for Prezza, Italy are online at the Archives of Italy, I browsed through the dates of 1838-1850, and the only birth for a Francesca Lucente was in 1846 to Nichelle Lucente and Dominca Gentile.  The maiden name of her mother is different;  but this is still a very close match.  So that brings the question as to who is the informant of Francesca's death?  The name of the informant is given as Luigi Pettinelli, who is residing at 54 Winter street; the same place of residence as Francesca, according to the death record.  

I only found two Luigi Pettinellis in the 1920 census.  One is living in Lawrence, MA, and looking at other records for this Luigi show that he is the son of Andria Pettinelli.  I have not made any connections with this Luigi to my family, and as they seem to be living in Lawrence, it seems unlikely this Luigi would be residing with Francesca at the time of her death in 1925, as the death record states.  The other Luigi Pettinelli is Francesca's grandson, the son of Damiano Pettinelli.  This Luigi was born in 1913.  If he was the informant, he would only have been 12 years old . That does seem a bit young.  The relationship on the death record of the informant Luigi Pettinelli is listed as NR, not recorded. If this Luigi Pettinelli is the informant of Francesca's death, he probably would have not known the correct age of his grandmother, or the name of his great grandmother.  (Does DiRanico sound similar to DeNicola, Francesca's daughter's married name - maybe this was the error?) 

If I could just find Francesca in the 1910 or 1920 census, I would have more information as to her correct birth date and therefore possible parents.  Another document that would be very helpful would be her two marriage records, first to Guiseppe Terragnoli and secondly to Luigi Pettinelli.  These documents would most likely have her parents' names.  The documents for Prezza that are online though the state archives only go up to 1865.  I think both marriages took place after 1865, as Francesca's daughter Louisa was born in 1877.  The Family History Centers do not have records past 1865 either.  After writing to the civil registration office for Prezza a couple of times already, and not getting a response, it seems I will have to hire a researcher who can obtain these marriage records for me.  So far I have not had much luck finding a researcher that will only look for one record for me.  

terragnoli / pettinelli / connection

My Italian ancestors have left some confusing and conflicting information that I have been trying to make sense of.  It all started some years back when my mother's cousin asked me if I had any information on Eva DeNicola.  Eva is a daughter of Louisa and Arnaldo DeNicola who died at a young age.  Eva would have been my grandfather Remo's sister.  My grandfather had never mentioned that he had a sister that died as a child' but he was also the youngest and may not have even known.  I had asked the reference librarian from Quincy if she could find a birth date and death date for Eva DeNicola since the records online only go up to 1915.  She did find Eva was born in 1919 to Arnaldo and Louisa T.;  and that Eva's death was recorded in Quincy in 1923. 

I did not find much more information on Eva until many months later a match came up on ancestry.com from findagrave.  Someone had posted Eva's gravestone from Mt. Wollaston Cemetery in Quincy, MA. I had not found Eva in the Quincy cemetery index, so I was surprised to see her gravestone from Quincy. Another surprise was the engraving on the stone, which stated Eva was also buried with her grandmother, Francesca Pettinelli. The Pettinelli name was one I had heard before in relation to Luisa Terragnoli, but no-one seemed to know the connection.

We knew that Louisa's maiden name was Terragnoli from her children Luigi, Gilda, Amelia, Romulos, Adolph, and Olga's birth records.  Also on Arnaldo and Louisa's passenger record from Italy to Boston, they state their friend in the United States is Louisa's brother, Cosmo Terragnoli. If the Francesca that was buried with Eva was Loiusa's mother; I would expect her last name to be Terragnoli, not Pettinelli.

I did another search for Terragnolis in Quincy and found a Damiano Terragnoli who married in Quincy. He lists his parents as Guiseppe Terragnoli and Francesca Lucente. Francesca matches the name on Eva's gravestone, but does not explain where the Pettinelli name came from. Oddly, Damiano uses the Pettinelli name in all future records, rather than Terragnoli. I would guess this makes it more likely that Louisa and Damiano are siblings, as Damiano is linked to both the Terragnoli and Pettinelli name, as is Louisa. I am thinking the most likely scenario is that their mother, Francesca Lucente Terragnoli, remarries a Pettinelli, and Damiano changes his name after his mother remarries.

My next step was to order the death records of Francesca Pettinelli and Louisa DeNicola to see how it lists their maiden names and to confirm Francesca Pettinelli is Louisa's mother.  The death records were not exactly as I expected.

Let's start with Louisa's death record first.  Louisa's mother is listed as Francesca Lucente.  This is the same name listed on Damiano Terragnoli's marriage record; linking them once more - probably as brother and sister.  However, Luisa's father is listed as Luigi Pettinelli, not Guiseppe Terragnoli as I had expected.  I am guessing that Louisa's father was listed incorrectly by her son A. DeNicola, who probably only knew Luigi Pettinelli as Francesca's husband and mistakenly recorded this name.  Finding Louisa's birth record and marriage record to Arnaldo would be helpful to see if Guiseppe Terragnoli or Luigi Pettinelli is listed as her father.  Unfortunately, the records available on the L'Aquila state archives and on familysearch only go up to 1865 for Prezza, Italy.     

My next step was to look at Francesca Pettinelli's death record to confirm she was Louisa's mother.  Indeed, Francesca's father is listed as Nichelle Lucente, matching the maiden name of Louisa's and Damiano's mother as Francesca Lucente.  This record also states that Francesca was widowed from Luigi Pettinelli; so Pettinelli is definitely a married name.  Finding this marriage record would be helpful to see if maybe Louisa's first marriage to Guiseppe Terragnoli is mentioned; confirming my suspicions that this is her second marriage.  I have been unable to find any passenger records or marriage records in the US for Louisa or Luigi.  I am not sure if they married in Italy or here in the US.  I have written Italy a couple of times for more informtion on this family, but I have not heard back.  I guess I will have to next write to the parish priest of Prezza.

My conclusions after obtaining the information from various sources is that Louisa, Damiano and Cosmo are all children of Francesca Lucente and Guiseppe Terragnoli.  I suspect that Guisseppe died in Prezza, Italy after 1886, about the year Cosmo was born.  Francesca remarries, either in the US or Italy, to Luigi Pettinelli.  Damiano was probably young enough that he used the Pettinelli name, maybe he did not even know his father Guiseppe Terragnoli.  I have not found much information in the US for either Francesca Pettinelli or the missing brother Cosmo, who was listed on Louisa's passenger record.  Maybe Cosmo went back to Italy.  I am not sure why I have not found much information on Francesca in the United States.  Obtaining some records from Italy would be very helpful in sorting all this out. 


death record transcriptions are from Mass Document Retrieval